"I wanted it more," said Hamilton. "I was hungrier than him. It's not even possible he wanted it as much as me."

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'One of the best wins' for Hamilton

Vettel responded: "I don't know about that. It was very close between us."

The result means the race for the title goes down to the final race in Brazil this weekend, with Vettel, champion for the last two years, holding a 13-point lead over Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, who was world champion in 2005 and 2006.

Victory for Alonso at Interlagos would give him his third drivers' crown if Vettel finishes lower than fourth.

Second place for the Spaniard would mean he would only win the title if Vettel failed to make the top seven. Third spot for Alonso would require Vettel to finish lower than ninth.

It was an impressive drive from Hamilton, who leaves McLaren at the end of the season to join Mercedes.

He then set off in pursuit of Vettel and finally overtook his rival after 38 laps of pressure and a little help from the HRT of Narain Karthikeyan, who slowed the German as he was being lapped.

"It was actually quite tricky," said Hamilton. "I seemed to be catching him in the first sector but then, coming out of Turn 9, he'd get a gap and it was difficult to be close enough for the back straight.

"How many times has it happened to me when I've been caught out by backmarkers? It finally worked in my favour for once.

"I knew it was going to be that lap, so I turned the engine up to maximum revs, went to go on the outside but he closed the door, went to go to the inside, but he started to move back. I was very lucky, it was very close, and I managed to pull off the pass."

Vettel added: "I think we did a good job keeping him behind for most of the race. Unfortunately, I had a little but of traffic which allowed him to be close and gave him a chance for free - and he took it. There wasn't much between us."

In achieving victory, Hamilton became only the second driver to win the United States Grand Prix in two separate locations. The Briton
also won in Indianapolis in 2007.
emulating Formula 1 legend Ayrton Senna, who won the race in Phoenix and Detroit.

Brazil permutations

Alonso must finish on the podium to stand a chance of snatching the title from Vettel

Victory for Alonso would give him the title if Vettel finishes lower than fourth

Second place for the Spaniard would mean he would only win the title if Vettel failed to make the top seven

Third spot for Alonso would require Vettel to finish lower than ninth

"It was wicked, I loved it so much," added Hamilton. "I'm so happy. I nearly lost my voice when I came across the line. For that whole in lap, I was screaming all the time, I was so happy. Not cool at all.

"We really deserved this one. Sebastian put up a great fight. The Bulls have been incredibly dominant for some time so to be able to topple them is a wicked feeling."

Hamilton admitted the team's recent reliability issues played on his mind in the closing laps.

"I just rubbed the car," he said. "I was like: 'Come on baby, we can make it.' To finish on a high is really special and hopefully we can go to Brazil with similar pace."

McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh added: "Lewis did a fantastic job. Sebastian is a quick driver but you can put him under pressure and you can race him. He did that fantastically.

"He closed in and he was patient, but just got by brilliantly. He had to overtake Mark along the way as well, so overtaking both Red Bulls today is a nice feeling.

"With one race to go, we'd like to win that as well. That would be some compensation for some of the disappointments, some of the failures, that we've had this year.

"We've got to get better, we've got to get stronger, we've got to make less mistakes. We'll learn from that and come out stronger next year, but at the moment we've focused now on Brazil."

Finally a race worthy of f1...not having to worry about tyre deg it was flat out racing Fantastic.. plenty of overtakes Kimi round the Hulk was brill and Hamilton showing the Kid Vettel how its done in an inferior car was the iceing on the cake. Alonso for the Title- this year Vettel shown he can only win in the quickest car he is so massively overrated his hissy fits on the car radio priceless

Vettel has some talent but has only ever shown himself to be capable of winning when he has undoubtedly the fastest car. When compared to Webber he looks much faster, but then who wouldn't. If Vettel can prove himself to be as quick as Hamilton or consistent as Alonso whilst driving a slower car I will concede to him being a deserved champion

@404 he could win 5 6 7 Wdc with red bull I mean with newey, what will the prove having an average team mate makes vettel look good put Jb kimi Rosberg or even mad MAL in red bull vettel wouldn't look that good, actually why dodgy RBR want Lewis surely he is better than average webber, he would win races as well as well qualify well its bcoz he will ultimately put seb where he belongs being num 2

A number of reasons. 1) Depends on Newey remaining at RB. Without him, RB and SV would have won nada. 2) If SV wants to go down as a "great" of F1, he'll need to prove he can win in another team/without RB's advantage. 3) The 'allure' of Ferrari. 4) Related to point three, he might like to go head to head with FA...seems unlikely to happen though.

Great race Lewis! I wish you the best of luck at Mercedes next year. I think McLaren made a huge mistake with not signing you for 2013. I hope Mercedes and Ross Brawn can put a competitive car together for you next year. It sure wasn't Micheal and Nico's fault that the Mercedes was not competitive in 2012.

@406. Twirlip it's not rocket science why Redbull & Ferrari did not make a move to get Hamilton. They have to keep their current drivers happy.

Do you really think Vettel or Alonso would say yes if the team asked "Is it ok to replace your much slower teammate (Webber) or under the thumb teamate (Massa) with one of the fastest drivers on the grid?"

More embarrassing lack of understanding of F1 from America's most clueless; Twirlip! Again, Renault was the best offer FA got in 2008. Ferrari won't employ SV until FA leaves. McLaren wouldn't have taken SV in the last few years as they were clearly happy with LH/JB. And McLaren are the ONLY team who would even consider co-equal drivers. Alles klar?

If Hamilton is really as good as his fans in the British press think he is, it's inexplicable that neither Red Bull not Ferrari snapped him up. You have the chance to get "the fastest driver on the grid", or as some people call him, "the greatest driver of all time", and you don't take it?

>"they praise each other cause they respect each other and they acknowledge each other as world class drivers "

They praise each other because praising each other means praising themselves. When LH says that "Alonso is a fantastic driver" he's also say "I'M a fantastic driver". When FA says "Lewis is a great driver" he's saying "I'M a great driver".

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